Ken Burns' "National Parks" all about stories, not just scenery

Ken Burns' latest all about stories, not just scenery

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/1781153,CST-EDT-esther21.article

September 21, 2009

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has seen a lot of things in his day, but I, of course, took the cake.

Burns was in town last week promoting his new documentary, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," airing on PBS stations across the country starting next Sunday when we met up to grab coffee. As much as I'm a Ken Burns fan -- don't get me started about that "Civil War," I can quote full passages in Shelby Foote's drawl -- right away I had to flat out ask him: "Why would I -- or anyone else -- want to watch 12 hours worth of scenery?"

"Oh, c'mon! You say 'national parks,' and people have a huge emotional reaction, they remember all their childhood memories and the wonderful associations," he said.

I gave him a blank stare and said: "Sorry, never been."

"What?! You've never been to a national park?!" he said, shaking his head incredulously.

Nope. No wood-paneled station wagon loaded with camping gear, no oversize picnic baskets, no whining, "Are we there yet?" from the back seat to Mama and Papa Cepeda for hours on end.

And I'll bet a lot of other Chicagoans have never visited a national park, either, so I just had to know what in the world makes Ken Burns think a bunch of city dwellers are going to tune in for six straight nights of geysers and such.

As preposterous a question as it was, he didn't hesitate to lay it on me: stories. Really great stories.

"Esther, this is not a travelogue, this is about conflict and drama; this is as interesting a tale as we've ever been able to tell," Burns gushed. "You've got the story of the most spectacular scenery on earth that wouldn't even be there if there hadn't been people who said, 'We need to set this aside.'"

Burns tantalized me with the story of Lancelot Jones, who in 1898 was born in a boat in Biscayne Bay to a former slave father and a Bahamian mother. He inherited from his parents the tiny island known as Porgy Key, near the southern end of the bay, and remained its only private resident -- serving as a fishing guide to millionaires and dignitaries vacationing in Miami Beach -- until 1992, when he was forced to evacuate because Hurricane Andrew.

Burns told me about fiery Chicagoan Harold Ickes, considered "the meanest man who ever sat in a Cabinet office in Washington." Ickes was the guy who, back in the 1940s, ordered managers at Shenandoah National Park to take down signs racially segregating campgrounds and picnic areas.

And, in an appeal to my vanity, Burns told me about Virginia McClurg, a reporter for the New York Daily Graphic who was sent to write about the archeological finds of Mesa Verde in the 1880s and ended up being the driving force behind President Teddy Roosevelt signing the bill creating Mesa Verde National Park on June 29, 1906.

Oh, I was sold all right. Burns makes magic out of historical figures and old black-and-white pictures, and just watching him tie his tongue into knots trying to cram all 12 hours worth of awesome into one cup of coffee had me contemplating how to ditch the keyboard in favor of the TV all next week.

Another fan sauntered over to tell the filmmaker all about his favorite national park. Burns asked him if he'd first gone as a child with his parents.

"Actually, no," Chicagoan Nick Kant told us as I sat up in my seat, regaining a little dignity. "I went my first time as an adult just because I wanted to witness the beautiful aspects of nature. You have to go out there and find them, they don't find you."

Those grand national parks have certainly found me -- if only on TV, for now. Maybe they'll find you, too.

Comments

[eric j henderson]

wow. this post is a rush, itself. been seeing the ads in the subways here in nyc and yes, they're all driven by nature, not by the stories. can't fault 'em. it would be hard to convey that. but the aspect of "we must must set this aside" to protect us from our baser selves is pretty dang compelling. i'm down. thanks 600 words. e